Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba has never been one to shy away from a side-project opportunity— he recorded an enjoyable album with F-Minus’s Josiah Steinbrick under the moniker Heavens, and he’s dabbled in solo material. His latest endeavor is a duo entitled the HELL, along with Angels and Airwaves drummer (and former member of The Offspring) Atom Willard. Angels and Airwaves itself is often considered a side-project of Blink 182′s Tom DeLonge and members of other popular groups, but in case this Inception-esque, band-within-a-band side-project-talk is getting confusing, let’s just consider the HELL a band of its own. A very good band.
Today that band released “R.R.R.,” the first song off the group’s EP that’s set to be released on iTunes tomorrow (just in time for the particularly hellish holiday of Friday the 13th). You can listen to the track at Alternative Press. The song title derives its name from the chorus, which consists of Skiba singing “Regret, Repent, Repeat and burn, you’ll never forget you’ll never learn.” Those dark lyrics mixed with the upbeat drums and pop-punk guitars are reminiscent of Maybe I’ll Catch Fire-era Alkaline Trio. The song also features screams of “1, 2, fuck you!” around the 1:30 minute mark, which I thought was badass when my friends’ now-defunct ska/punk band Alleyway Sex did that in high school (see “Human Nature Instinct” on their Myspace page, if that intrigues you for some odd reason).
“R.R.R.” has a surprisingly un-poppy sound compared to many of Skiba and Willard’s recordings, and I look forward to hearing the rest of the album when it’s released tomorrow. Click here to listen to “This Addiction,” the title track off Alkaline Trio’s 2010 album, on Earbits Radio!
